by Ray Jason
It was a moment of pure, transcendent bliss. AVENTURA had just cleared some treacherous,
shallow reefs south of Jamaica. As I
studied my chart, it suddenly dawned on me that now there was nothing but open
Caribbean water between my lovely sailboat and a cornucopia of enchanting
destinations.
I could select the beautiful and
historic walled city of Cartagena. Or
perhaps the stunning San Blas islands with their feisty Kuna Indians, who never
fell to European conquest. Maybe a visit
to the magical Rio Chagres was in order.
It is a jungle wonderland where the howler monkeys outnumber the
humans. Or possibly I should set my
course for the undiscovered jewel of the Caribbean – Bocas del Toro. But then again, maybe I should sail west to
the turquoise, fish-lush waters of Belize.
Pondering these exquisite choices reinforced my belief
that there is no freer way to live than
the sea gypsy path. Since I didn’t
want to waste my fresh stash of Jamaican limes, I made myself a tall gin and
tonic. Then I retired to the foredeck
with my clipboard. Feeling utterly at
peace - with the sails pulling and the wind-vane steering - I decided to
inventory the many forms of freedom that wandering the Wide Waters bequeaths
me.
·
FREEDOM FROM
FRENZY – The usual speed for AVENTURA is around five knots, which is only about
twice as fast as someone out walking their dog.
This allows me to leisurely observe and enjoy my surroundings. The adjoining world is not reduced to a
frenetic blur, it is a panorama to examine and savor. I love the fact that my sailboat is such an
organic part of nature. It is enmeshed
within its rules and constraints. In the
same way that you never see a turtle driving a jet-ski, you never see a boat
like mine traveling at 50 knots. This
magisterial pace is also vital for someone with a philosophical inclination. That’s because Speed is the arch-enemy of
contemplation.
·
FREEDOM FROM A
BRAVE NEW 1984 WORLD – The two classic dystopian novels of the Twentieth
Century proposed very different approaches that governments might use to impose
tyranny. In Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD,
the authorities used entertainment and drugs to enslave the people so
effortlessly that they didn’t even notice their bondage. But in Orwell’s 1984, the rulers used
gruesome “boot on the neck” totalitarianism to subdue and neuter the
people. They combined a vicious secret
police force with an inescapable surveillance grid.
I contend that the evolving, low-grade
tyranny that is so evident in the USA combines BOTH of these tactics. The populace is sedated and dumbed-down with
a 24/7 kaleidoscope of escapist media that prevents them from noticing the
erosion of their freedoms.
Simultaneously, the State is militarizing police forces and installing a
surveillance dome that is all-pervasive.
Orwell would be shocked at how thoroughly the Overlords can monitor the
modern citizen. Out here in the sea
gypsy world, I am invulnerable to their electro-techno seductions and much less
visible to their all-peeping eyes.
·
FREEDOM FROM
HUMILIATING DEPENDENCY – Self-reliance is mandatory for the ocean sailor. You can’t call a plumber a thousand miles
from land. But not only is being able to
fix that leaking toilet vital - it is also extremely invigorating. Being a “minor master” of one’s seagoing
domicile is deeply empowering in a modern world overflowing with
incompetency.
·
FREEDOM TO
EMBRACE MY WILD, FERAL, ANCESTRAL SELF – The Western techno-industrial paradigm
has decimated almost all of the indigenous cultures on our planet. There are only about 85 native tribes still
surviving in the deserts, jungles and Arctic snow fields. But even though civilized people view them as
savages, they see themselves as self-reliant human animals who can attend to
their complete life needs. On the other
hand they are amused by our deadly dependencies, and they think of us as
domesticated animals – like sheep or cows.
By spending much of my time in un-peopled places, I can reconnect with
my lost feral self. When I whack open a
coconut with my machete and savor my Tarzan Tea or greet the sunrise with a
blast from my conch shell or stop my boat in the far ocean to swim in
miles-deep water, these are not just symbolic gestures. They are steppingstones along a path to greater
freedom and back to the wisdom of the wild.
·
FREEDOM FROM THE
FEAR OF COLLAPSE – When I first started cruising many years ago, there was no
such thing as Peak Oil or derivatives or methane venting. But as our Energy, Economic and Ecological
mega-systems have become overwhelmed, the specter of a major societal
unraveling is a genuine possibility.
Fortunately, a well-equipped ocean-worthy sailboat is probably the best
survival module there is. I have
discussed this belief thoroughly at my various “Sea Gypsy Tribe” essays that
can be easily scrolled down to here on my blog.
So when I finish this essay, I will sleep soundly knowing that AVENTURA
can handle almost any catastrophe that the world might present to us.
·
FREEDOM FROM
“WORKER BEE EDUCATION” - The actual goal of state-sponsored, industrial-model
education is not to inspire the love of knowledge into students. Instead, it is designed to teach them just
enough so that they can operate the machines that are needed to keep the system
functioning. The prevailing educational
template does not just discourage critical thinking, it suffocates it. That’s because too much careful inquiry would
reveal a system that is founded upon injustice and exploitation. But the children that I see around me in the
sea gypsy community, who are being home-schooled by their parents, are full of
curiosity and creativity. They are
learning about Nature and other cultures not from documentaries but from direct
contact. The normal inquisitiveness and
originality that comes with childhood is not suppressed - it is supported.
·
FREEDOM FROM
SUPPORTING IMPERIAL GOVERNMENTS – In my ideal world, there are no borders. And as
a symbol of that vision, I fly the Earth Flag aboard AVENTURA. It also permits me to show no allegiance to
my birth country, the USA, which has become such a malevolent force on the
planet. I am not referring to the bulk
of its people, who are largely decent, caring humans, but to its political,
corporate and military Overlords who wreak havoc and death around the world. And to those foreigners who claim that I SHOULD
ridicule the average American because they keep electing such soul-less
leaders, I submit that the system is now so corrupted that voting or protesting
no longer offer any genuine hope for change.
·
FREEDOM FROM AN
UN-CULTURE WHERE “OUR STUFF” DEFINES US – Most of my friends suspect that my
lifelong simplicity has been involuntary rather than voluntary. They believe that if I had applied myself
better I could have been successful and wealthy. But much of it has actually been conscious
and deliberate. It began when I first read this sentence by Thoreau:
“A man is rich in direct proportion to the number of things that he can live
without.” That inspired me to judge the
worth of a person not based on their “stuff” but on their non-material
qualities such as intelligence, kindness and humor. Such a non-conformist perspective means that
I am dramatically out of step with the dominant culture. Fortunately, by living close to Nature in my
small boat, I can avoid a disposable un-culture that is addicted to “the latest
and greatest.” My sextant could have
been used by mariners 200 years ago - and it could be used by future sailors
200 years from now.
·
FREEDOM FROM
“WORST-CASE EVIL” – It is fairly indisputable that those who control our world
are greedy, arrogant, selfish power freaks.
But there seem to be credible insiders and whistleblowers who maintain
that the people in charge are even beyond hideous - that they are genuinely
diabolical and evil. My genuine hope is
that this is not the case. But if it is
so, what better way to escape their web, than to wander about the seldom
visited coasts and the vast ocean expanses of our wild, wet planet.
The sun had now vacated my longitude in the Caribbean,
and so I decided to go below and cook my dinner. But the remembrance of that Thoreau quote
about voluntary simplicity, inspired me to dig out my little folder of what I
call “road quotes.” I had collected them
during my long ago hitch-hiking days on the Asphalt Seas. I freshened up my gin and tonic, and settled
in to renew my acquaintance with these memorable quotations. About halfway through them, I came across one
that I had forgotten. It is by Albert
Camus, and it is so relevant to the subject of this essay that I was both stunned
and delighted. Allow me to share it with
you:
“The only way to deal with an un-free world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”